Caribbean nations are developing an action plan outlining legal options to press the United Kingdom to negotiate slavery reparations. Officials at a recent conference said regional leaders hope to hold focused talks at upcoming Commonwealth and UN summits. If diplomatic efforts fail, they are prepared to pursue the matter in international courts. A British government spokesperson recently restated its longstanding refusal to pay reparations. Read more about the region’s unified strategy.

Caribbean nations are drafting an “action plan” that sets out legal options to compel the United Kingdom (UK) to negotiate a decades-long slavery reparations agreement, officials said at a reparations conference.

Regional leaders hope the UK will enter focused, constructive talks at upcoming Commonwealth and UN summits. If Britain continues to reject diplomacy, they are prepared to take the case to international courts, according to the Guardian Newspaper.

Earlier this month, a spokesperson reaffirmed the British government’s longstanding position that “the UK does not and will not pay reparations”.

Ralph Gonsalves, former prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, said last week’s Barbados-hosted Caricom Regional Conference on Reparations, held with the Caricom Reparations Commission (CRC), was crucial to agreeing on a unified strategy for bringing Britain to the negotiating table. Gonsalves now serves as an elder and adviser to the Repair Campaign, a movement for reparatory justice.

He said that because slavery endured for centuries, reparations must be realistic and extend over decades. “We need a concrete, multigenerational plan,” he said.

Discussing the Caribbean’s legal options, Gonsalves rejected claims that Britain had not breached the laws of the time during transatlantic slavery. He added that the UK’s accession to modern UN conventions created a binding legal duty to provide reparative justice.

“The consequences of slavery fall squarely within the remit of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which requires states to help address the effects of native genocide and slavery,” Gonsalves said.